Not so Super Tuesday: They’re just not that into you, Mitt

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Willard "Mittens" Romney has been outspending his rivals 12-1 with money from his millionaire and billionaire friends in the "one percent."

The political punditry declared that Mittens had to win Michigan last week or his campaign was over.

Despite his decisive financial advantage, Mittens barely eked out a popular vote win last Tuesday in his birthplace home of Michigan. It was first called a tie in delegates awarded, but the Michigan Republican Party in awarding at-large delegates gave Mittens the edge. Rick "man on dog" Santorum cried foul and promised to challenge.

Mittens also won a non-binding straw poll caucus in Wyoming, and a low turnout caucus in Washington. This was the set-up to the so-called "Super Tuesday" in which 11 states were holding primaries and caucuses on that date.

The political punditry declared that Mittens had to win Ohio or his campaign was over.

There was little chance that Romney was going to lose the all important delegate count in Ohio because of the way the Ohio Republican Party awards delegates and the fact that Rick "man on dog" Santorum failed to file the necessary paperwork to qualify to be on the ballot in every congressional district.

Despite his decisive financial advantage, Mittens barely eked out a popular vote win in Ohio last night. With 99% pf the vote counted, Mittens has only a 12,000 vote lead. Mitt Romney wins Ohio Republican primary | cleveland.com. But thanks only to the disorganization of the Santorum campaign, Mittens faired better in delegates to be awarded. Mitt Romney claims at least 34 delegates and Rick Santorum at least 19 in Ohio | cleveland.com:

If the unofficial vote from Tuesday's primary holds when the official tally is announced in two weeks – after adding late-arriving absentee ballots and provisional votes – Romney will win 38 delegates and Santorum 21.

One factor that could change things is if Santorum is successful in contesting the party rules allocating the delegates.

A major reason Santorum lost ground in the delegate count is that he was not on the ballot for delegates being awarded in three Congressional districts: the 6th, 9th and 13th districts. In other districts, he did not have a full slate.

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Three delegates were to be awarded to the winning presidential candidate in each of the 16 districts. However, in some cases, Rick Santorum could not win three delegates, because he fell short of filing procedures, the state Republican Party announced on Friday.

It also benefitted Mittens that Governor Goodhair Rick Perry and Governor Jon Hunstsman were still on the Ohio ballot even after having withdrawn many weeks ago, collecting some 14,000 votes between them. What were these voters thinking wasting their votes?

Willard "Mittens" Romney also won the "border state" of Virginia, again only because of the disorganization of his rivals in failing to qualify for the ballot. Rick "man on dog" Santorum and Newt Gingrich, a Virginia resident, were not on the ballot. With no alternative for whom to vote, around 41% of Virginia GOP voters cast a vote for Ron Paul. But for the incompetence of Santorum and Gingrich, Virginia would have been a very different result.

Mittens won in his home state of Massachusetts and neighboring Vermont, solidifying his claim to the more moderate Northeast region of the country. He also won in the heavily Mormon state of Idaho, and in a bit of a surprise, in Alaska. (Todd and Sarah Palin failed to deliver the state for Newt Gingrich).

Santorum won the "Bible Belt" states of Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota. Mittens has a problem with the rural Evangelical base of the GOP. They are just not that into him. Santorum, an evangelical Catholic, should sweep the remaining "Bible Belt" states in the middle of the country: Kansas (March 10), Missouri (March 17), Nebraska (May 15), Arkansas (May 22), Kentucky (May 22), perhaps the more diverse Texas (May 29), and South Dakota (June 5).

Newt Gingrich won the state he represented in Congress, Georgia. Newt will focus on Alabama and Mississippi (March 13), and Louisiana (March 24), trying to solidy his claim to the Deep South region. Santorum will be competitive in these states, but not Mittens. Newt has nowhere to win outside of the Deep South.

What this indicates is that the "presumptive front-runner" Willard "Mittens" Romney, who currently has the most delegates, is not winning over the hearts and minds of GOP voters in the Red States of the Deep South or the Great Plains, and he is struggling to win despite an enormous financial advantage in the industrial "swing states." Mittens is perhaps the weakest front-runner of either political party in many years.

One thing is clear: if Newt Gingrich were not being kept in this race by his "Big Casino" sugardaddy, Sheldon Adelson, Rick "man on dog" Santorum would have won Michigan and Ohio by a comfortable margin over the better financed Willard "Mittens" Romney, and the media narrative today would be entirely different. Romney's campaign would be declared over.

Newt Gingrich is a vote drain for Santorum, and he is Romney's best friend at this stage. Which is Sheldon Adelson's objective — he doesn't like Santorum, but can live with Romney. One billionaire is distorting the election results in the GOP primary thanks to Citizens United v. FEC.

Mittens may eventually win the GOP nomination, but it will be a loveless marriage. Tea-Publicans' hearts and minds belong to Santorum. They will have Newt Gingrich and Sheldon Adelson to blame.